Welcome to Transfigurations! This blog is intended to serve the orthodox Anglican community and the wider Christian community. We pray that all that is posted here will be faithful to the Scriptures as the inspired word of God, speak the truth in love, edify, bless and transform this local body of Christ, and be an impetus for revival, repentance, prayer and intercession!

Monday, May 06, 2013

Scrolling around...May 6, 2013

Albert Mohler: Confessional Integrity and the Stewardship of Words ...Theological education is a deadly serious business. The stakes are so high. A theological seminary that serves faithfully will be a source of health and life for the church, but an unfaithful seminary will set loose a torrent of trouble, untruth, and sickness upon Christ’s people. Inevitably, the seminaries are the incubators of the church’s future. The teaching imparted to seminarians will shortly be inflicted upon congregations, where the result will be either fruitfulness or barrenness, vitality or lethargy, advance or decline, spiritual life, or spiritual death.

Sadly, the landscape is littered with theological institutions that have poorly taught and have been poorly led. Theological liberalism has destroyed scores of seminaries, divinity schools, and other institutions for the education of the ministry. Many of these schools are now extinct, even as the churches they served have been evacuated. Others linger on, committed to the mission of revising the Christian faith in order to make peace with the spirit of the age. These schools intentionally and boldly deny the pattern of sound words in order to devise new words for a new age — producing a new faith. As J. Gresham Machen rightly observed almost a century ago, we do not really face two rival versions of Christianity. We face Christianity on the one hand and, on the other hand, some other religion that selectively uses Christian words, but is not Christianity...

Doctors warn of 'aggressive' new sexually-transmitted superbug
...The antibiotic-resistant strain of gonorrhea HO41 was reportedly discovered in Japan two years ago in a 31-year-old female sex worker.
"This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly," Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine, recently told CNBC. "Getting gonorrhea from this strain might put someone into septic shock and death in a matter of days. This is very dangerous."...

Dear Mr. President
...Mr. President, we are at opposing sides. I did not vote for you, but I heard you many times talk about how we needed to come together. Like it or not, you are my leader, and I try. I hold your office in high esteem, and I am called to pray for whoever holds that office. I try to raise my children to at least see the other side and seek to understand it. I believe in education, not indoctrination. Always seek to walk in another's shoes. I don't believe that you need to agree with someone's point of view to have compassion for that person.

I cannot tell you how disappointed I was when I heard your speech recently at a Planned Parenthood event. You did not seek to see our side. I know you don't want to work with our side, but I had hoped that at least you would try to see it. In the speech, you could have said "I'm grateful it wasn't in a Planned Parenthood clinic where Gosnell worked. Your clinics are sterile and safe. He broke several laws put in place for the safety of women, and I hope he is punished to the full extent of the law." That's what I was honestly expecting from you. Acknowledging the horror while holding to your pro-choice stance and still worshipping Planned Parenthood.

Instead, you called out states that would put any restrictions on abortion clinics. Apparently, the laws Gosnell broke were ones you didn't think should have been there in the first place. Those laws were restrictions on abortions to protect women, and you said in this speech that those types of laws were bad. I ask you, Mr. President, do you believe this Gosnell situation was good for women?

That was your statement we've been waiting for. Then you flippantly threw around God's name, and asked him to bless the work of abortion.

You said people sought to restrict women and take away their choices.

Mr. President, I don't believe you understand. I don't believe you want to understand, or seek to understand...

Growing religious intolerance, not just dictatorships but also Western countries The picture the U.S. commission on international religious freedom (USCIRF) is painting in its report on religious freedom in the world, is getting gloomier and gloomier. The USCIRF is an independent federal consultation body established by the International Religious Freedom Act, to monitor religious freedom violations on an international level. Its annual report for 2013 is now out and gives an overview of the state of religious freedom throughout the world, as well as listing the governments that commit the most serious violations against religious freedom...

Gosnell 'Story' Not New, Babies Born Alive Left to Die for Years
...Creger states that interviews in 1983 with Department of Human Resources (DHR) officials revealed no clear rules for treating infants who had survived abortions. As a result of her expose, Midtown Hospital was asked by DHR to draft new guidelines for caring for surviving babies, though the decision as to how to handle a born-alive infant was ultimately left to the physician...

Life in the Ruins, and the Dangers of a Euphemism Addiction
...Mollie Hemingway writes for the Get Religion blog, which monitors and analyzes media coverage of religion. She made it her mission a few weeks ago to get the mainstream media talking about the horrific conditions in Kermit Gosnell’s Philadelphia abortion clinic, on display during the man’s recent trial. After five weeks of testimony, both sides rested in the ongoing trial this Monday. Hemingway talks about the media and the trial and the implications of this all...

Pope tells Argentine Bishops to use doc restricting communion for pro-aborts ...The text states in paragraph 436 that "we should commit ourselves to ‘eucharistic coherence’, that is, we should be conscious that people cannot receive holy communion and at the same time act or speak against the commandments, in particular when abortion, euthanasia, and other serious crimes against life and family are facilitated. This responsibility applies particularly to legislators, governors, and health professionals."

Pro-life activists were thrilled at the election of Pope Francis given his strong defence of life as Archbishop of Buenos Aires. His decision to bless a child-in-the-womb as one of his first public acts, was also a great sign of hope. Last month, Pope Francis’ Good Friday Stations of the Cross included prayers for conversion for those who promote abortion and euthanasia...